Jingo - Artist's Bingo Fun and Educational!

It's the week before our much anticipated 2 week winter break. My students started their own mental vacation at the beginning of this week, and I must admit my mind has been trying to mentally check out as well. I usually run my lesson plans straight through the school year and celebrate all the hard work with a special art party during the last week of school. This year I thought I'd mix it up a bit. Instead of struggling through the week attempting to keep my "can't wait for break" students focused, I decided we'd play Jingo.

Jingo is a great Art related bingo game I picked up a few years ago. I have two versions. One features famous artists and the other features items related to the artist's studio. It's a fun game for the students because bonus points are given for each game's winners. I sneak some education in there by quizzing the students as we go for double bonus points.

Here's an example: I read the description of either an artist or the item listed on the card. Students raise their hand when they think they know the answer. I remind students they are not to guess...I tell them that if I am reading them the description it must mean that we learned about this in class. It's wonderful when my students are able to access information they learned in previous years and apply it.